Thursday, December 06, 2012

Since ABC — unfairly, in my opinion, as my
readers are aware — canceled “GCB,” I’ve been waiting to see its stars
in other shows and movies. One of the series’ stars, Mark Deklin, can be
seen next in an episode of “Castle” (to be shown this winter), as well
as next year’s feature film “Tarzan” (which also stars Kellan Lutz, of
“The Twilight Saga”). When I spoke with the always-charming and
always-interesting actor recently, he told me all about his upcoming
projects, starting with his guest stint on “Castle.”

Daytime Dial: Without giving too much away, what can you tell me about your episode of “Castle”?

Mark Deklin: You’re absolutely going to hate me,
because there’s so very little I can tell you. I feel like almost
anything I tell you has the potential to be a spoiler, which tells you
that it’s an interesting episode and an interesting character, but I’m
afraid of tipping my hand.

DD: I know exactly what you mean, because
“Castle” always has you wondering throughout the entire episode, sending
you down some wrong paths, before they finally solve the case.

MD: One of the things I like about “Castle” —
one of the things I think that makes it smart — is that they don’t throw
in a red herring. I’ve been on crime shows before, and I always play
the guy where it’s like: “Oh, he’s the jerk. I bet he’s the murderer.”
Everybody always sees through that, because it’s so formulaic. The thing
I like about “Castle” is that it’s not like that. The twists and turns
could take you anywhere. The guy I play could be a good guy or a bad guy
or just caught in the middle — there’s no way to know. And I can’t say a
whole lot more than that.

DD: You’ve gotta give me a little something.

MD: We first meet him when his girlfriend is
found dead. And he’s not a suspect necessarily, he’s just one of the
people they are interviewing. This is clearly a guy who’s very saddened
by her death. And then, of course, we meet him again later on in the
episode …

DD: How was it working with Nathan Fillion?

MD: He’s a funny guy. He’s such a classic
Canadian boy. And I mean that in all the best ways. You know, just so
nice and personable and welcoming and down to earth — just a cool guy.

DD: How was the rest of the cast and crew to work with? Does the set have a nice working atmosphere?

MD: Everyone was just lovely. I’ve been in this
business long enough, and I see how when you go on a different set,
there can be good energy or bad energy. And I do sort of think it comes
from the top down. I’ve been on sets where you just feel the ickiness in
the air. Nobody’s horrible to you, but you can just feel that it’s not a
nice place to work. That’s definitely not the case on “Castle.” I was
getting texts from various people (who’d worked on the show) saying:
“You’re going to love it. It’s such a great set.”

From the minute I walked on set, I felt
welcomed. It’s very professional and well run. It all starts with Nathan
and Stana (Katic, who plays Det. Kate Beckett), who are both just
really chill and cool and laid-back. I had a lot of fun working with
them. I worked with Jon (Huertas, Det. Esposito) and Seamus (Dever, Det.
Ryan) as well — I actually knew them beforehand — and they were great.

You can tell it’s just a group of people who
made a conscious decision to create a nontoxic work environment. It’s
really nice when that happens. That was one of the things I really miss
about “GCB,” because it was one of those environments. We all loved each
other, and I loved going to work every day. And you don’t always have
that working in television, so when you find it, you really remember
those sets the most.

DD: I know it’s what sets up the whole story of “Tarzan,” but I am bummed that your character has to die in the beginning.

MD: It’s funny that that’s technically a
spoiler, which cracks me up, because now everybody goes into the movie
knowing that I die. But that’s the story — if the kid isn’t orphaned,
then he can’t grow up to be Tarzan. So by definition, to make him an
orphan, Mom and Dad have to get offed.

DD: What can you tell me about John Greystoke and his wife? What do we get to learn about them before you get offed?

MD: Jaime Ray Newman played my wife, Alice, and
she’s great. Our characters kick off the movie. We get a little more
action, a little more screen time than the parents in Disney’s “Tarzan”
got. You actually get to see us interacting and figuring our stuff out.
But it’s not the Victorian “Tarzan” that we all grew up with. It’s a
modern take on it. My character is almost like a Richard Branson type — a
wealthy but well-intentioned adventurer and entrepreneur. He discovers
that there’s a serious energy source — sort of meteorite, which crashed
in Africa — and he wants to find it. He brings his family with him,
which of course is a stupid decision, but I suppose in the moment it
doesn’t seem stupid because he doesn’t go thinking he’s going to die. He
just thinks that they are going to be going on a safari. He ends up
unleashing a mystical force that he never could have anticipated, and
everything kind of goes

DD: Was this a fun movie to shoot?

MD: Yeah, it was really fun. It was cool. It
was all CGI work, and I’ve done a lot of that for video games. It was
amazing to see how technology has progressed just within the last year
or so. My favorite part was watching Peter Elliot, who is based in
London. He’s a stunt man, choreographer and also he’s an ape researcher.
He worked on “Gorillas in the Mist.” He’s a fascinating guy. It was his
job to turn these actors and stunt men into gorillas; how to move and
breathe and occupy this gorilla space, and it was pretty amazing. If you
watch the making-of trailer, it is pretty fantastic how these guys
embodied these great apes, and to hear him talk about these apes with
such passion. He was just fascinating to work with.

And Reinhard Klooss — who directed it, from Constantine
Films — was a really interesting cat too. It was cool. We shot in Munich
— I had lived in Vienna for a little while, and one of my best friends
lived in Munich at the same time, so I used to spend a lot of time in
Munich. It’s a great city. I hadn’t been back in years, so it was really
fun to be back there shooting and to brush up on my German, which is
very rusty.

DD: Do you have a release date for “Tarzan” yet?

MD: I know it’s definitely 2013 in Europe. And I know that they want to get a 2013 U.S. release as well, but I don’t know.